mobilehomerepair.com

It looks like I will be relocating my singlewide to a new lot in my park, and my existing aluminum skirting will have to be replaced. (The difference in the slope of the old and new lots would rule out any effort to re-use the old skirting.)

So I've been looking at various brands of vinyl skirting. Stylecrest "Eagle" appears to be reasonably priced, but more expensive brands such as Variform "ProGuard" appear to be of heavier gauge. Any comments about how to choose vinyl skirting would be appreciated.

I am also considering using metal roofing material as Mark describes in his book. But the ease of working with the vinyl material will probably win out.

MTW

Hi & welcome. As for brand names I really can't say one over the other, But I will HIGHLY recommend going with steel. Yes it does take a little longer to install, BUT you will only do it once. It will laugh at attacks by weed eaters, and as I have said before if a critter eats it's way through it I really don't want to know what it was. Add in the ease to add insulation behind it and in my mind it's a no brainer.

Greg

My own preference would be to use aluminum. It is far more durable than vinyl, yet is still easy to work with. But none of the local suppliers carry it anymore. I found a source in (I think) Michigan. But the cost to ship to the Seattle area on top of a high price to begin with was just too much to bear. Ground contact plywood is also an option, but the local building department apparently considers that to be a "structure" and wants to see plans, etc.

I'm going to ask my setup guys if they've ever used steel roofing for skirting, but I really think I am going to be stuck with vinyl for a variety of practical reasons. Hence my question about brand preferences.

MTW

There really is not much of a difference between working with steel over Aluminum. I think you will find steel to cost a little less than aluminum. If you do accurate measuring & planning you can buy sheet lengths that will leave almost no waste.

Greg

I used steel roofing material (white) on the place I just finished a reno on. I found it easy to cut with a metal cutting blade in my circular saw and with pre planning of cuts had no waste pieces over about 4 inches in length. Screwed it to a fully insulated wood frame with the bottom edge of the steel 4 inches deep into 8 inch deep trench of pea gravel. The wood frame is about 1 inch above the ground attached to stakes.

Greg S
I need to replace my vinyl skirting with steel and am quite interested in the wood frame you built. Is the wood frame attached to the underside of the house? ... or just "free standing" and staked into the ground??

I need to erect a fairly strong structure on the backside of my place so that I can back fill it else I wind up with a 2.5 foot deep trench on one end of the slope. Believe me, I've wracked and wrecked my brain on a workable solution for months on end.

One idea is using EMT pipe - two sizes so that one will slide inside the other. Smaller diameter goes into the ground with a short piece of the larger diameter attached to the under side of the house. This would allow telescoping of a few inches at the top....and provide a steel framework for attaching metal siding along the bottom pipe. A trim board at the top to conceal the mechanics.

My problem/concern is that with the strength of the pipe structure...it will be very unforgiving with any lateral movement at either end of the pipe.

Mark, check "a better skirting idea" in the articles section of the site. Mark (site owner) detailed and has photos of how he did his.

Greg

For three sides, that method works perfectly. On my fourth side...well, frankly, the bozo who set this place was a bozo. They dug a wedge out of slanted terrain so that the wedge simply had less slope - but not any where near "flat and level". They set the house and then backfilled against the skirting on two sides trying to level the ground around those two sides based on the high point of the natural terrain. What they ended up creating was a fairly good sized swimming hole. I had to use a tractor to dig out the lowest corner just to let out the standing water (during the rainy season). That worked to get rid of the standing water.

The back side of the house has all but the top 10" or so of its skirting buried - with the amount buried in relation to their attempt to level sloping terrain. At the short point, the back fill is only about 4 inches. At the other end, the back fill is over 2.5 feet of dirt piled up against the plastic skirting. They concocted a framing system behind the skirting that was not sufficient to hold back the weight of the dirt - especially when that dirt got a good soaking. Add to this that the skirting was screwed down at the top for the entire length of that side. The heavy rains came and the frame / skirting failed. The tie downs on the front side (down slope)are floppy loose. The tie downs on the back side are tight - as in holy toleldo tight! (Somewhere in a post from last year or the year before - I was asking how to figure out if your house was moving as mine seemed to have moved a couple inches and was now pushing up against the front decking)

I used a small Kubota tractor with a four foot front loader to dig out a "trench" five feet wide - in which the bottom of that trench follows the bottom of the wedge they originally cut into the side of this hill. Now I need to come up with a framing/support system that is not attached to the house - and to which I can attach some heavy duty skirting.

Believe me when I say I have sat out there on the edge of that trench and looked and pondered a variety of "solutions". If this pup still had its axles, I would have dragged it out of here long ago to put a real and decent foundation under it.

This is a tough one to visualize. If you can't change the terrain, My first idea would be to would to be to make a level cement footer for the skirting even if it is done in 5' lengths. That would give you a starting point to work from.

Greg